Mobile Phone Usage and the Risk of Brain Tumors

Amir Hossein Mortazavi Entesab,Naina Sawal

doi:10.21767/2254-6081.1000103

Abstract

Purpose: This literature review investigated the possible association between the use of mobile phones and brain tumors. Methods: In brief, 11 publications were retrieved from JSTOR, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Summon in order to compare the association between the usage of mobile phones in patients with a brain tumor and those without. Papers published in English, and after 2001 were selected for. There was no limit on age, gender, geographical location and type of brain tumor. Results: For regular mobile phone usage, the combined odds ratios (OR) (95% confidence intervals) for three studies was: 1.5 (1.2-1.8); 1.3 (0.95-1.9); and 1.1 (0.8-1.4), respectively. Furthermore, the odds ratio did not increase, regardless of mobile phone use duration. Additionally, Lonn et al. observed that the risk also did not significantly increase when assessing the laterality (ipsilateral or contralateral) of the tumor in relation to side of head used for the mobile phone. Kan et al. observed an OR of 1.22 when comparing analog phone to digital phone use. Conclusion: This review concluded that there is no current association between mobile phone use and the development of brain tumors. Although certain studies speak in favor of an increased risk, many are plagued with either: sampling bias, misclassification bias, or issues concerning risk estimates. Further research needs to be done in order to evaluate the long-term effect of mobile phone usage on the risk of developing a brain tumor.

Highlights

In the past 20 years, the use of cellular telephones has increased exponentially in today’s society, with greater than 5.3 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide [1]
Those studies demonstrating the relationship between mobile phone use and brain tumor development were assessed by their subgroups in order to gather information based on tumor histology, tumor location, type of phone, and amount of use
The remaining publications selected assessed the risk of any intracranial tumor with increased mobile phone usage, regardless of gender, age, or race

Summary

Introduction

In the past 20 years, the use of cellular telephones has increased exponentially in today’s society, with greater than 5.3 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide [1]. Current guidelines state that mobile phones emit energy levels far too low to cause any deleterious health effects, there has been growing debate as to whether a relative risk has not been established due to the different levels of exposure when the research was initially conducted. Numerous attempts have been made to evaluate this connection based on the standard of mobile phone usage today – with much of the research focusing on the effects of mobile phone usage and the development of tumors, in the head and neck region. Research has focused on tumors particular to the temporal area of the brain – a region proposed to experience the most exposure to mobile phone radiation – including tumors like, meningiomas, gliomas, and acoustic neuromas [3]. The current argument in favor of an association proposes that low frequency radiation is non-ionizing - in that it does not damage DNA - if presented at high enough levels the radiofrequency radiation can induce a thermal change in tissues and thereby stimulate tumor growth [2]

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion